


She Keeps Me Warm

by ohlookits4am



Category: Descendants (Disney Movies)
Genre: Cuddling & Snuggling, F/F, Fluff, Snow Day
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-16
Updated: 2019-05-16
Packaged: 2020-03-06 09:01:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,750
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18847843
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ohlookits4am/pseuds/ohlookits4am
Summary: The VKs have never experienced the snow before, and don't know how to dress appropriately for the weather. Fortunately for Mal, her half-dragon blood has it's perks in that department. Evie, on the other hand, is not quite so lucky. She does, however, have a best friend who is willing to keep her warm - which turns out to be very fortunate for both of them indeed.





	She Keeps Me Warm

Winter in Auradon came with a flurry of snow that dusted the entire school campus like white icing on a cake.

Except a whole lot of icing... on a _really_ big cake.

It was scarf and glove weather, and for the students born and raised in Auradon this time of year was something exciting and familiar.

But for the VKs who grew up on the Isle of the Lost where it never snows and only hails, the white powder was something they’d only heard about in stories.

The Isle itself was always cold and never sunny, so the kids who grew up there were already used to winter-type weather. However, the VKs had gotten so used to bright and sunny Auradon that they hadn’t exactly prepared themselves for the changing of seasons.

Autumn had been and gone, the bright orange and yellows providing great creative vision to Evie and her dress making. The falling leaves had even caught the intrigue of the broody but artistic Mal, who had added several colourful trees into her sketchbook over the course of the season.

_“What? They look like they’re dying.” She’d defended herself to Jay, the day he’d stolen her sketchbook to sneak a peek at her most closely guarded possession. “That’s literally my whole aesthetic.”_

Mal and the rest of the Core Four hadn’t noticed the cooling of the weather, and were woefully unprepared for the day that they would discover the school's PA system _could_ and  _would_ be used to make unreasonably early school announcements.

The VKs wake to the sound of Fairy Godmother's magically enchanted, disembodied voice as she cheerfully announces to the entire school that all morning classes are cancelled (much to Jay and Carlos’ delight) because of something she calls a ‘snow day’.

Well,  _most_ of the VKs were woken up by the message. Mal had somehow managed to sleep through the entire thing, much to her roommate’s amusement.

Evie, who is usually an early riser, decided hours ago that her bed was far too comfortable this particular morning to get up for her regular morning jog.

But now wide-awake and curious, Evie pushes herself up out of her cosy warm bed and pads softly across the room to peer outside, intent on seeing this ‘snow’ for herself.

Many of her fellow students are already outside, messing around and delightedly building people-shaped piles of snow. Some of them are even lying down and waving their arms about making shapes in the fresh powder - which, Evie does think is a _little_ strange... but she still finds herself strangely excited at the prospect of joining them.

“Mal, wake up!” Evie turns away from the window with an excitable grin, but she's met only with disinterested silence and the image of her best friend curled up in a nest of blankets, purple hair ruffled and face relaxed in the way that Evie knows only happens when Mal is asleep. “Okay, fine. I guess I’ll go by myself.”

Evie quickly gets dressed into the outfit that she’d picked out the night before and had set aside for today. It was just her usual blue leather style of short dress, paired with some blue boots and leggings. It was a look she _knew_ she looked damn fine in... but for her own sake, she still feels like she needs to make sure.

Checking herself out in the large floor-length mirror that looms on her side of the room used to be part of her daily routine. For months she would get up early each day and spend hours making sure her make-up was flawless.

 

Mal herself had a bad habit of staying up late at night to draw, and as roommates the two girls would often cross-paths in the early hours of the morning. Typically, neither girl approved of the other's activities but both were too stubborn to completely change their own habits alone. Slowly though, over time (and with the help of their friends too) they've been making progress together.

Sparing a quick glance in the mirror to make sure everything is in order, Evie smiles at her reflection. The outfit itself, she acknowledges, looks amazing - even though she wonders whether she’ll be warm enough if she wears it outside in the snow.

She can't quite stop herself from wondering if she should do something more creative with her hair, but she doesn’t dwell on the thought very long. Evie closes her eyes and chooses to focus on her excitement to go out into the snow instead. She heads into their shared bathroom to brush her teeth, humming a tune as she goes, and completes the rest of her new morning routine.

Sneaking another quick look out the window again on her way past, Evie spots Jay and Carlos already outside and inexplicably throwing snow at each other. With the thought that they must be fighting, she quickly rushes out the door, only sparing a fleeting glance towards her sleeping roommate as she darts past. Mal looks comfortable, and Evie doesn't want to wake her up just so she can help deal with the boys.

Too caught up in her rush to break up their apparent feud, Evie forgets to close the heavy wooden door to their dorm quietly - the loud bang enough to startle the still-sleeping girl left inside.

Mal blinks her eyes open at the sound and blearily looks around the room, searching for the familiar the blue smudge that would become her best friend as soon as Mal bothers to focus her eyes.

“..mhm, keep it down would you, E? I’m tryna sleep...”

At the lingering silence she receives in response, Mal frowns and sits up in her bed with some reluctance.

"E, you still here?"

Still no response.

_Weird, she always waits for me_ _._ Mal thinks to herself, sighing as she drags herself out of bed to get dressed and ready for the day. Hoping to catch up with the other girl, she doesn’t put too much effort into her appearance. She simply grabs whatever clothes are clean and available, slipping them on quickly before pulling her favourite leather jacket off the back of Evie’s desk chair.

Mal shrugs on the jacket on her way out the door, mumbling a spell under her breath that will brush her hair for her, but hesitates at the threshold. She turns around to grab her spellbook, skimming the pages for a spell that will also brush her teeth, and makes her way out into the corridor.

Walking down the hallway, Mal notices that the air about the other students is different, almost buzzing. As she swings open the large door to exit the dorm building, she finally realises why.

Mal takes a step outside, eyes wide with bewilderment at the sight in front of her - the white winter scene is filled with kids dressed in woollen beanies and other warm knits, all messing around and laughing together.

Her combat boot crunches in the wet powder and as she bends down to investigate further, she comes to the conclusion that this must be the snow that her mother had told her about when she was younger.

_Before she realised what a disappointment I was, and still talked to me about what life before the Isle was like._ Mal thinks to herself, somewhat bitterly.

A familiar shout interrupts her thought process and Mal soon hones in on Carlos’ voice as he yells about being hit by something cold.

Mal turns around to see Jay and Carlos messing around in the snow, and can’t help but smirk at her two idiot friends. Well… one isn’t an idiot, but he still has a tendency to get caught up in the idiotic antics of the other one.

“Jay, stop don’t- ow! Why are you throwing things at me?!”

“It’s called a snowball fight, and you’re supposed to throw snow at me too!”

Mal begins to walk over towards them, but doesn’t get very far before she feels a body collide with her own. The slippery ground makes it hard for her to keep her balance, and she quickly finds herself tumbling backwards.

Closing her eyes tight as she falls, Mal starts mentally running through a list of everybody who could possibly be attacking her. She hits the ground before the list is finished - it's a long list - but Mal is pleasantly surprised to find that her impact with the ground is decidedly less painful than what she'd expected. Snow makes a good cushion apparently, even if wet and slightly cold. Useful for her, and bad news for the person who knocked her over.

Blinking her eyes open and coming face to face with an ocean of blue hair, Mal lets out a sigh and loosens her clenched fists. Her Isle instincts had kicked in the moment her feet had left the ground, and Mal is just glad she had enough sense to check who her attacker was before throwing any punches.

“Good morning to you too, Evie.” Mal’s tone is sarcastic, but her smile is one of relief. When Evie hadn’t been in their dorm room, she'd started wondering what she might have done to make her best friend mad.

But now, lying flat on her back with said best friend apparently trying to burrow into her arms, Mal realises there's nothing to worry about.

Except, perhaps, that Evie is cold to the touch and shivering. Which is a little alarming, she has to admit.

Wrapping her arms tightly around the shaking girl in an attempt to shield her from the cold, Mal frowns. “Wow, did you just crawl out of the freezer or what.”

“Oh my god, she was right.” Evie mumbles into Mal’s neck, a satisfied grin spreading across her face - one that isn’t so much  _seen_ by the girl trapped underneath her, but rather something that she definitely _feels_.

Mal shivers and it's not because of the cold. She focuses on the  _other_ things that she can feel: including that her back is getting wet from the snow, which gives her enough space in her mind to process the last thing that Evie said.

“Who was right about what?” Mal is getting increasingly more confused by this interaction, but she _feels_  that Evie’s teeth have ceased their chattering and is therefore mostly happy with her own contribution to the situation.

Evie lifts her head to look Mal in the eye and the purple haired girl can’t help but smile at Evie's red nose.

_She's so cute... that's not fair._

“Jane has this theory about your dragon blood." Evie’s smile was blinding, and Mal absentmindedly noted that her teeth were a similar shade of white as the snow around them. "Something about it keeping you warm when it's cold? She wanted to know how you were dealing with the snow but... didn't quite know how to ask."

Mal can't help but laugh at the idea of Jane approaching Evie for help in dealing with her. "Ah, so you're here to make me spill all my secrets, then."

A small smirk twitches at the corner of Evie's lips as she rests her chin on Mal's chest gently. "Something like that."

“Well, congrats... you caught me, I am in fact a dragon.” Mal deadpans, lightly brushing some snow off of Evie’s rosy cheeks with her thumb. “That still doesn’t explain why I was so rudely tackled to the ground.”

Evie’s cheeks darken under Mal's taunting gaze, and in an uncharacteristically shy move Evie actually buries her face back in the other girl’s neck. “Admittedly, I got distracted and slipped..."

Mal raises an eyebrow, although it goes unseen by the girl on top of her. Evie doesn't often get distracted when she's got her mind set on something, and Mal knows it.So that wouldn't make sense, unless _..._  "E, Did somebody say something?"

"No! Well-... okay, sort of. Audrey was with Jane when she came over to ask or my help." Evie sighs, but quickly continues her explanation when she hears  _and_ feels the growl in Mal's throat. "I swear it was nothing bad! She just took the opportunity to point out that although my outfit is ‘bomb like always’, it’s also going to do nothing to keep me warm. And then Uma walked past and... well...”

Mal sighs, wrapping her arms tighter around Evie while rolling her eyes at the sky. “Let me guess, she told you to come find me so I could help you with that.”

“Something like that.” The tips of Evie’s ears are red, but Mal doesn’t let herself think that it was from anything other than the cold.

It’s not that she has a particular problem with helping Evie out like this, even though Mal will never say that out loud because she has an image to maintain, she’s just getting sick of their friends trying to set her and Evie up.

Mal has already accepted that it’s never going to happen, and she's just as happy making Evie happy as they already are: best friends. She doesn’t need anybody pushing the matter further.

“It was actually more along the lines of ‘knowing someone who could get you all hot and bothered’, just in case you were wondering.” A taunting voice that could only belong to the sea-devil herself shatters the eerie calmness of the moment between the girls.

Mal groans dramatically, looking to the sky and asking _whichever_ higher power is determined to ruin her life what she did to deserve this. Evie takes more direct action against the intrusion and quickly sits up to glare at Uma.

Uma grins wickedly, bundled up in a sea-green puffer jacket which, in Evie’s opinion, does _not_ match the pirate hat the girl is still trying to pull off in the middle of winter at all. “Oh no, don’t stop on my account.”

Mal takes a deep breath and is just about to tear into Uma with some seriously cutting words, when the cheerful face of Jane pops up directly in front of her with a smile, startling both Evie and Mal simultaneously. “Fascinating! You’re melting the snow around you too, Mal. Did you notice?”

The half-dragon girl looks down at the slush-puddle she is currently sitting in and lets out an even bigger groan. “ _Seriously?_ Great, now I’m all wet… DO NOT say what I suspect you are about to say Uma, or I’ll show you _exactly_ what the extent of my dragon abilities are.”

“Jeez, calm down. I was just leaving anyway, Gil and Harry can’t go without their captain for longer than twenty minutes without getting up to something stupid, and..." Uma pauses to check the time on her phone, which has been decorated in a number of seashells. "It’s been about an hour since I last saw them. So...”

Uma backs away from the group with a mocking salute. “Catch you later, losers.”

Mal's frustration must show on her face, because she finds herself having to bite back a bitter retort when out of the corner of her eyes she notices the disapproving look that Evie is shooting her.

_Jeez, it’s not like I was going to curse her or anything._ Mal thinks with a frown, but Evie notices that too and places a delicate hand on top of Mal’s in sympathy.

“I’m curious, do you ever _feel_ the cold, Mal?” Jane asks curiously, the first of probably  _far-too-many_  questions if Mal does not find a way to escape fast. “And how does th-”

“All good questions, Jane.” Mal interrupts, finding her way to her feet as quickly as she can manage. She offers Evie a hand and pulls her upright with urgency as well. “Yes, great questions even. But ones I will have to answer another time because right now I... uh, have to get Evie back to our room! Look at her, she’s barely standing.”

Evie, who actually feels perfectly fine, if a little cold now that she's not in Mal’s arms, is confused for only a brief second before catching on to Mal’s meaning.

“Oh, uh… yes! The cold is just… brr. Wow, I-... I think I’m getting sick.” Evie fakes a polite cough which has Mal stifling her laughter. She shoots Mal a quick glare, but turns to Jane with an apologetic smile that seems genuine enough. “We really should be going, but thanks Jane!”

Mal practically carries Evie away from the other girl, who is left confused and a little concerned. But she still smiles as she bounces her way over to Carlos and Jay. The wind carrying back to the girls bits of a conversation about how snowball fights are _actually_ supposed to work.

“That was rude, Jane is just being nice.” Evie scolds playfully, snuggling into Mal’s delightfully warm side as they make their way back to their dorm room.“Are we actually going back inside?”

“She’s nice. I’m not. The Isle in me hasn’t gone away _that_ quickly.” Mal grins and keeps her arm around Evie as they walk, sheltering her from the cold. Both of them know that it’s just an excuse to be touching each other at this point, but neither of them mention it. “And yeah, I need to get changed. Damp leather isn’t fun, whether I’ve got dragon-blood keeping me warm or not.”

Evie laughs and nods her head in agreement. “There’s no class today, you know. So we could just stay inside and do something if you wanted to. I know you missed out on your morning sleep-in by following me out here.”

“I think I’m too awake now to actually go back to sleep, but…” Mal opens the door to their dorm with her free hand, and lets out a dramatic sigh. “I _guess_ I could be persuaded to watch some of that Netflix show you’re always going on about.”

“Stop pretending that you don’t like _Queer Eye!_ ” Evie smacks the other girl lightly on the arm and rolls her eyes, dancing out of her grip so that she can pick out a new change of clothes for herself. She aims a knowing smirk at Mal, staring her down with intent. “I know you binge-watched the first season that day I was supposed to be sewing dresses with Doug.”

Mal scoffs, immediately stalking off to search for something to change into and purposefully avoiding Evie’s gaze. “I did no such thing.”

Evie smirks as she sees Mal grab a pair of Auradon Prep-emblazoned sweatpants that she had stolen from Jay at the start of his high school athletic career, and a comfy blue sweater that looked _suspiciously_ like the one that Evie had lost a couple of weeks ago.

But Evie doesn’t mind, because she had already decided that she was going to wear one of Mal’s less-hideous sweaters and some leggings anyway.

“You left it up on the TV. I saw it as soon as I got back.” Evie grins, watching Mal stomp over to the bathroom to get changed. The other girl disappearing behind the door with a slam.

Knowing she's not going to get a response from the other girl for a while, Evie takes the moment alone to get dressed herself. She only just manages to pull Mal’s well-worn purple jumper down in time, as it's rightful owner strolls back into the room. Mal has a look on her face that Evie can only describe as a pout.

“Whatever, okay. You were right, it’s good. Can we please just watch now?” Mal asks, leaning against the bedpost of her bed with her arms crossed. She raises an eyebrow at Evie as soon as she notices what she's wearing. “Is that my sweater?”

“You can hardly talk.” Evie sticks out her tongue with a laugh, picking up her laptop to bring over to Mal’s bed. She climbs onto the bedspread, examining Mal with an appraising grin. “It looks good on you though.”

Mal blushes and looks everywhere except Evie’s face when she joins her on the bed. “Yeah, well… I’d say the same except everything looks good on you.”

“Flatterer.” Evie grins, a light blush on her own cheeks as she opens up the laptop and navigates her way to the browser. She logs into Netflix and searches for the show as Mal makes herself comfortable against a stack of pillows on the headboard. “Do you know what looks best on you though?”

Feeling Mal’s questioning gaze on her back, Evie starts up the first episode of season two and turns around to face the other girl with a mischievous grin. She crawls forward until she is lying on top of Mal again, much in the same way she had been in the snow. She meets startled green eyes with a smirk, and just to torture the other girl she throws out a flirtatious wink as well. “Me.”

There is a beat of silence before Mal groans, her head hitting the headboard with a muted _thud_ while Evie giggles. “...E, that was terrible.”

“Maybe a little.” Evie’s nose crinkles slightly as she laughs, the melody twisting Mal’s insides into something light and warm. Mal finds herself smiling too as she shakes her head. “Come on now, let’s get this Netflix and _chill_ underway.”

“Wow, E... that one was actually worse.” Mal laughs, watching as Evie turns around and adjusts herself so that she’s sitting more comfortably between Mal’s legs.

“But seriously, I’m still cold.” Evie leans back into Mal’s chest, tilting her head up to meet Mal’s gaze with a pout. “Please help.”

Mal rolls her eyes but wraps her arms around her best friend with a fond smile. The two girls settle in together for a morning of watching quality television, the purple-haired girl keeping them both warm to the best of her ability, while the other simply soaks in the moment with her favourite person.

The two girls watch in silence for the most part, save for the occasional comment from Evie on the fashion-aspects of the show, and a couple of snarky quips from Mal. But a few episodes in, Evie finds herself speaking up. “M?”

“Yeah, E?” Mal drags her eyes away from the screen to glance down at the girl lying in her arms. She can’t see Evie’s face, but she can tell from the other girl’s voice that she’s happy.

There’s a beat of silence before Evie snuggles back further into Mal’s body with a contented sigh. “I hope it snows again tomorrow.”

“...yeah, me too.”

 

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading y'all. This has been the first fanfic I've ever posted to AO3, and definitely the first one I've put into the world publicly since my regretful time on FF.Net over half a decade ago. Hopefully, long gone are my days of tense changes mid-fic (although if you spot any errors, please do let me know). I cannot guarantee the plot ideas I have now will be any less cheesy, but hopefully you guys liked this story anyway.


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